Genius Adventure 2: The Stolen Calculations Book
by Selene Illusinia
Summary: [More Than She Seems] Erik discovers something he never would have guessed about Darcy. And steals something she needs. Darcy plots her revenge.


**This is another installment to the 'more-than-she-appears' series. Erik really shouldn't try to play games with Darcy. Anyway, for those of you who read _Darcy's__Revenge_ this is the story of how Erik ended up with Darcy's calculations book. There will be a sequel to this one.**

**As I've said before, these characters aren't mine. I'm merely borrowing them for my amusement and the amusement of others.**

**-Illusinia**

Erik Selvig prided himself on his ability to _not_ loose his very important books necessary for his research. He always knew where they were, every last one. And so help the poor soul who misplaced or moved anything from where it lay. Which was exactly why he was tearing his lab apart in frustration at the moment.

One of his books had gone missing.

Specifically, he was missing his book on advanced power calculations related to adapting power for various needs and machinery. Something he needed for his research on the damn cube. And it was missing. MIA. Untraceable. Eaten by the servants of Hel!

Erik stopped at the last one and shook his head. He'd been associating with Darcy too much. The girl was amusing, if taken in small doses, but she was more than likely a few marbles short of a full set.

Returning his mind to the problem at hand, Erik stormed from his lab, frightening several interns and other scientists who were scurrying around the area. He glared at each of them and watched everyone scatter. Remaining focused on his mission, Erik began to mentally go through every place his book might be located besides where it was supposed to be. He knew it wasn't in his rooms. There were no books in that space at present, as all he did in there was sleep, and sometimes not even that. He had a cot in his lab for a reason after all. Hell, he should probably just move into his lab. His thoughts began to stray to kitchen installations, before the rational portion of his mind took over again. Definitely too much time with Darcy.

Heading towards Jane's lab, Erik hoped he had left the book there, or that perhaps Jane had borrowed it. Entering the space, with its book covered tables, blackboards filled with equations, and various star charts strewn about, Erik spotted the book he wanted almost immediately. On Darcy's desk. 

Annoyance filled him as he snatched up the book, and a lecture he could give Darcy on respecting property came to mind.

Then he opened the book.

And felt his fury rise.

The pages of the book were covered in notes and comments, scribbled in a rainbow of pens of every kind and color: from gel to ball-point, from red to neon green to black. And everything in between. All in Darcy's eccentric handwriting. The book was hardly legible. Erik was beyond furious.

Angrily, he flipped to the front page of the book and felt himself freeze. There, written on the front page, were the words 'Property of DL'. Darcy Lewis.

_Darcy?_ _What__would__she__be__doing__with__an__advanced__book__on__power__calculations?_

Again, Erik opened the book and peered closer at some of the notes. There were pages where parts of calculations were crossed out and replaced with other equations. Notations on how to improve on what the book said. Comments on skipping or eliminating whole steps and portions of equations based on the needs of the equipment it was powering. In the back, he even found some notes on potential ways to remote power equipment without using cables. And transferring power through wireless means between two supplies.

Erik felt his jaw drop. He was floored. Somehow, a stool ended up beneath him, which was good because his head was spinning. Darcy, happy, silly, oblivious Darcy, was making corrections to a science book. An advanced science book. On power supplies.

_I must be hallucinating. There has to be a logical reason for this. The girl can barely string together a coherent sentence sometimes. She makes inappropriate popular culture references whenever she can. Sure, she's not a complete idiot, but she isn't a genius either...is she?_

Slowly, Erik's mind began working again and he started to really consider what he'd heard Darcy say in the past. The way she spoke had always struck him as off, like her mind was working faster than she could speak. Her comments often came at a time when everyone was trying to think through a problem, and for a moment Erik considered the possibility that Darcy wasn't goofing off like everyone always assumed but that she had already _solved_ the problem and was bored waiting for everyone else to catch up. But was it possible that Darcy could be _that_ smart and actually _hide_ it?

_Of course she could._

If Darcy really was a genius or even just nearly genius enough to come up with the stuff Erik was reading now, she could figure out how to hide the fact that she was a genius. The question was, _why_ would she hide it? What possible advantage could she have?

Erik's thoughts were interrupted rather abruptly when Darcy entered the room casually, her normal look of disinterest plastered across her face. Her eyes landed on him almost immediately as she headed for her desk, catching sight of the book in his hands. However, she gave no reaction and instead shot him a grin.

"Hey Erik, what's up?" Her voice was completely casual, lacking any tones of concern or fear.

"Hello Darcy," greeted Erik mildly, his hands moving slightly over the book he held. _Maybe__I__can__smoke__her__out.__If__she's__really__as__intelligent__as__this__book__suggests,__we__need__to__know__so__she__can__help__us.__With__her__on__our__side,__we__could__harness__the__power__from__the__cube__in__no__time._ "Sorry to intrude, I was just looking for my copy of AdvancedMathematicalCalculationsforPowerSystems it seems to have gone missing. Have you seen it?"

Darcy shook her head calmly. "Nope. Did you talk to Stark? He's the kinda guy who would borrow a book like that and totally forget to return it."

Tony Stark hadn't even crossed Erik's mind earlier and he would be sure to talk to him later. Even though the copy of the book in his hands was probably more advanced, with all of the random notes and the like written in the book was illegible to him. He still needed his own copy back.

"No, I didn't think to ask Stark, though if he has borrowed it I probably won't get the book back," replied Erik. "I found another copy though, which I can always use until I get mine back."

Still no sign of agitation from Darcy. _The__girl__has__some__poker__face._

"Actually, I need that book back," commented Darcy casually. "I found it when I was unpacking some boxes and brought it in as a second copy for reference but Jane said it's useless and told me to get rid of it."

Erik nodded. "So when did you take an advanced electrical engineering class?"

"I didn't," corrected Darcy. "It belonged to a friend who was into that stuff. She moved away years ago and forgot the book at my house when she did."

"Really?" questioned Erik with a raised eyebrow. "It says property of DL in the front cover."

"Her name was Dahlila Lorance," explained Darcy. "It was part of why we were friends. Dahlila and Darcy sounded cool together."

Internally, Erik felt his face fall. Her explanation sounded ridiculous, but it was _possible_ that the book belonged to another person with the same initials. _Its__Darcy's__handwriting__though.__THAT__I__can__recognize._

Visibly, Erik nodded. "So why do you still have it?"

"She put a lot of work into correcting it," explained Darcy. "I always meant to give it back to her. She died a few years ago in a car crash though, and seeing it makes me sad so I thought I'd leave it here. Tossing it seemed like a waste."

_This__girl__is__a__really__good__liar.__If__I__didn't__recognize__the__handwriting,__I__might__actually__buy__this__story._ Erik nodded again. "Well then, if you don't mind, I'd like to borrow this book until I can find a copy of my own." _Take__the__bait..._

Darcy just shrugged. "Go head, but I don't think its that useful. She really did a number on some of the pages."

"I can read the pages I need," replied Erik. Hopefully dropping the clue that he'd read the book already would smoke her out.

Again, Darcy gave no outward sign of discomfort. "Whatever."

Forcing a smile as she again rebuked his attempts to trick her into admitting the book belonged to her, Erik stood and nodded before heading out the door. Once in the hall, he mulled back over Darcy's story and shook his head while heading to his own lab. Maybe the book wasn't hers. She had just let him walk out with it after all, and some of these calculations were very advanced. If it were him, he never would have allowed someone to steal his research like that. _Maybe__it__really__isn't__hers..._

Back inside Jane's lab, Darcy was mentally cursing up a storm.

_Shit, shit, shit, shit on Schrodinger's Cat! Erik has my book! He's looked inside! I am SO boned if he doesn't believe that bullshit I just spewed. I mean really, a dead friend with my same initials? What the fuck are the statistical chances of THAT happening? Next to nothing, that's what! Damnit, damnit, damnit! For someone with a shrine to the Norse God of Mischief I'm a crappy ass liar._

Taking a deep breath, Darcy snatched up one of the notebooks off her desk at random. Unlike her calculations book, which had a _just_ found again too, her notebooks were all written in code to avoid being read. If anyone looked at it, the stuff would look like gibberish with partially finished sentences here and there along with some random sketches between pages. Not like anyone would really try to decode her notebooks either, but still...

_Damnit,__I__need__to__get__that__book__back!_ An annoyed huff left her as she turned to leave the room again. She'd come back for her calculations book which she'd realized had been left behind earlier. Apparently the same one that Erik needed. The memory of Erik's line of questioning caused Darcy's eyes to narrow for a moment before a mischievous smirk slid across her face and she straightened up significantly. If Erik wanted to play, she would play. And Darcy always played to win.

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**As I said, there is a sequel to this coming which will be significantly more fun than this story. It will be called _Darcy's__Revenge:__Erik_ and should be posted up today or tomorrow.**


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